The Little World

A cartoon from my youth showed a man on the street outside a liquor store holding two paper bags. The bottom of one had given away and a bottle fallen out – smashed on the footpath. The chap had his eyes to heaven and the caption read ” Please, God, let it be the soda…”.

I had a soda moment in the workshop one day. A nearly completed model of a MiG 21 was sitting on the cutting mat when I turned and brushed it with my sleeve. It hit the floor and my heart went with it.

First thing you do is stand still. Then you look down. The MiG had hit the floor on its belly, dislodging the centre-line tank and breaking off the nose wheel. The wing landing gear legs were intact, as were the gear-well covers. The wings were okay – nothing broken from the tail and the nose wasn’t dented.

I located the wheel and headed immediately for the shop. A pin vice to drill the gear strut through and a small sewing pin section meant that the repair would not rely upon cement alone. The strut was cleaned, repositioned and the whole assembly re-cemented…then re-enforced with cyanoacrylate. The tank was a simple re-cementation job.

The best thing is not to have accidents. The next best thing is to have little ones. But you can improve your character by repairing the situation quickly and properly. Do it before despair makes a fool of you.